Outlander author Diana Gabaldon said: “Do they have the ‘See something, say something’ thing in the UK?,” in reference to the US-based campaign to encourage members of the public to report suspicious activity.

The area where Rankin lives was once dubbed ‘Writer’s Row’ as Alexander McCall Smith, who wrote the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, lives nearby and Harry Potter author JK Rowling used to own a home there.

In 2009, Rankin appealed for help online to help police catch vandals who had set fire to five wheelie bins in the street.

It emerged last month that Rankin and other Scottish crime writers dined with Police Scotland chief constable Phil Gormley at the prestigious Royal Scots Club in Edinburgh to discuss the single police force.

He said it came after fellow writers raised concerns with police top brass that a force revamp meant old-school fictional detective heroes would no longer ring true.

Rankin said: “The chief constable did have quite a lot of crime writers in for a meeting. We said, ‘Look this is a nightmare’, and he said, ‘This has all been done for the right reasons and I’m sure you can find a way round it’.

“Trying to explain that to readers all over the world, for most of whom it is an inconvenience, trying to explain that has happened, without boring them with the detail of that, is quite tough.

“Crime writers will tell you how horrified we were when the changes took place.”

Gormley has since said that he did not disclose any “state secrets” during the meeting.

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